Red donation boxes around town used for profit, not charity

March 11, 2007 -- DAVID MANN - Jerry Kron
thought for sure that the donations bin sitting in front of his Jeffersonville
business was there to help people. He had no idea it was connected to a
for-profit business.

The red metal bins — shaped like 8-foot-tall mailboxes on steroids — have popped
up across Southern Indiana in recent months. They have numerous signs posted on
them, telling people to drop off their unwanted clothes and shoes and
advertising the benefits of recycling their old clothes rather than throwing
them away and so forth.

But Kron, owner of Auto Center of Jeffersonville, who had received the box only
a week or so ago, said he did not know it was a commercial business rather than
a charity outfit he was helping.

Then again, he said, he couldn’t remember specifically if the sales manager who
had approached him about putting the box near his curb had said anything to
imply that it was or was not a money-making venture. Either way, he said, he’s
not getting a cut of the profit.

The company who put the box outside of his Market Street business —
Illinois-based U’SAgain (pronounced use again) — has been putting such boxes in
cities across the United States since 1999.

It takes the clothes from the donation boxes and sells them for various uses.
The recycled textile is used for everything from insulation to auto shop rags,
said Marlene Ceja, the company’s director of community relations. That old shirt
you put in the bin may even make it to a foreign market where it finds new life
as — you guessed it — an old shirt.

Last year, the company collected 18 million pounds of clothing from its
operations in Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Louis, Minneapolis and Seattle. U’SAgain
has only been in the Southern Indiana and Louisville area since last year. So
far, it’s set up six boxes in New Albany, seven in Jeffersonville and 48 in
Louisville, Ceja said.

“I don’t understand how there’s confusion,” about what the company is, she said.

Ceja said the company does not want to deceive anyone about who they are and
what they do. The box outside of Kron’s Auto Center has a sign on it that notes
it is a commercial company. U’SAgain says it is not against the charitable
organizations that collect clothes, but rather a friendly competitor.

Over at Bridgepointe Goodwill — one of Southern Indiana’s largest charitable
organizations — the feeling isn’t exactly mutual.

It’s such a wonderful process for less fortunate people who receive help through
organizations such as Bridgepointe, she said. Bridgepointe runs a lot of social
programs — such as special education, day care and job training and placement
assistance, Marshall pointed out — about 80 percent of which are funded by
donations.

“When donations go to a for-profit, it just seems like it’s not the right thing
to happen,” she said.

Ceja said her company does do some charity work. Last year, she said, more than
$60,000 was donated to schools and churches. A small portion of what the company
collects is also given away.

There has been no drop in the amount of donations received at Goodwill, Marshall
said. Rather, there has been an increase because of extra help the organization
has been getting from the community after fire devastated Goodwill’s Clarksville
warehouse last month.

There are concerns about how the boxes will affect donations in the future, she
said. Goodwill has not used donation boxes since the 1980s, officials said.

U’SAgain, of course, has its way of explaining business. There is an entire
section of the company’s Web site devoted to explaining why someone should
consider using commercial clothes collection, rather than donating to a charity.

Basically, the site says the charitable collection system is not up to the task
from an environmental aspect. The company bills itself as a recycling company,
which keeps old clothes from filling up landfills. Last year, 107,888 cubic
yards of landfill space were saved, according to the company.

“There is plenty of room for everybody, both for nonprofit and for-profit
endeavors,” the site says.

Kron, on the other hand, is not sure if there’s enough room on his curb. If he
would have known it was a for-profit company, he said, he would not have
accepted the donation box. He says he’ll have it removed knowing that.